A Borgia Mini-Plog! - (pg 3. Gendarmes Complete!)

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

Just seen this thread and am very impressed.  Old "Cheesy Ray" looks just the right mix of hungover and pissed off with someone.

[HappyChappy439]

Hi again! I've been working on trying to paint a block of infantry up for the Borgias following on from my test halberdier a few months ago. The inspiration for the designs is largely taken from the excellent conversions at the Stuart's Workbench blog: https://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/2017/05/assembling-tudor-figures.html

Sculpting cloth, let alone big fancy sleeves isn't my strong suit, so this was a bit of a challenge! And I tried to set myself the additional challenge of relying on GW Contrast paints where possible (mostly out of curiosity!)

So with that in mind, I've set to making a block of 18 Borgia halberdiers, representing Cesare's own forces, under his banner as the Duke of Valentinois, I've decided to try something else with the photos as well, on the windswept, (highly creased) plains of central Italy!





And here's a selection of a few individuals from the unit





Let me know how they've turned out! If they're a success I'm debating whether or not to add a few arquebusiers to support them and fill out the Borgia foot

[Atheling]

Good work on the sleeves. 

Do you have any pics of the putty process you use?

[Charlie_]

Very impressive, I think your sculpting looks perfect.

[Stuart]

Excellent work on the sleeves there, I’ve not seen many examples of the Tudor dollies and you’ve certainly made the most out of them.

The colour scheme works really well with the coats too.

[Stuart]

There’s some alternative sleeve sculpts here that might be useful for you;

https://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/2016/10/wip-french-infantry-conversions.html?m=1

[Atheling]

There’s some alternative sleeve sculpts here that might be useful for you;

https://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/2016/10/wip-french-infantry-conversions.html?m=1

I really appreciate these tutorials on your blog Stuart. Quite selfless of you taking the time out and invaluable to anyone wanting to try their hand 

[HappyChappy439]

Thanks for the kind words!

There’s some alternative sleeve sculpts here that might be useful for you;

https://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/2016/10/wip-french-infantry-conversions.html?m=1

And thanks for the link to the tutorial! Your blog's been a huge inspiration for this project so it's very much appreciated!

Good work on the sleeves. 

Do you have any pics of the putty process you use?

Unfortunately I don't have any mid-sculpt pictures at the moment, but I can take some once I start on the arquebusiers if that would help!

Thanks again everyone!

[HappyChappy439]

Hi again! It's been uh....a while since the last post here!

I've not completely forgotten the Borgias! And finally after 10 months I've got another (small) update

I've got some more infantry this time, Cesare was apparently quite an early and enthusiastic adopter of gunpowder tactics in the field (according to Rafael Sabatini in The Life of Cesare Borgia, at least!), so I've decided to include a block of handgunners/arquebusiers for his forces





The handgunners themselves are based on the Steel Fist Miniatures Tudor dollies, again, using the sculpting tips in Stuart's blog, with Perry plastic mercenary arms

I ran into a bit of an issue in that some of the handgun arms in the mercenaries kit are much more suited to 'static' poses, than the more dynamic 'advancing' poses for the Tudor Dollies, so (again using tutorials from Stuart's blog: https://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/2017/07/tudor-dollies-update.html ) I cut off a few of their legs, and swapped them out with legs from the Perry plastics, to get some standing poses




Also, not directly related to the figures themselves, but I've been trying out some different things with the photography and lighting, so here's versions with the 'grass mat + white background' rather than 'black background' to see which looks better in a post!





Let me know how they've turned out!

[Atheling]

Fab 

You have certainly got the most out of those Tudor dollies from Steel Fist.

How did you find converting them? I have yet to try anything out with mine.

[Friends of General Haig]

Great looking unit - very nice conversions!

[Luigi]

Amazing job.
Or, how they would have said it themselves, stupendo!
Great conversions and painting.

[HappyChappy439]

Thanks everyone!

You have certainly got the most out of those Tudor dollies from Steel Fist.

How did you find converting them? I have yet to try anything out with mine.

Converting the Tudor dollies was honestly pretty straightforward! Where they're basically 1:1 with the Perry sculpts, the legs on the dollies match up to about knee-height on the WotR plastics, so swapping those out isn't an issue. Sometimes the Perry legs are slightly wider than the dollies' though, so there's a little bit of putty work to just cover up any gaps, but other than that it's fine!

The only issue I think I ran into was some weird castings for the Tudor heads, where a few of them were...a little melted-looking in places! But nothing insurmountable!

[HappyChappy439]

Hi again!

A bit of a question more than an update this time!

I'm (hopefully faster this time) working on a second block of handgunners, and I was looking at what flags to use for the unit, on the Borgia flags sheet by Pete's flags there are two versions of the 'normal' Borgia coat-of-arms, one with the regular yellow border (the one I used on the handgunners previously), and one with a red border.

So question is, does anyone know what the significance of the red-bordered Borgia flag is? Is it the personal variation of a particular family member?

(I don't want to post a picture of it directly, so here's a link to the seller page on eBay with the flag on, if that helps at all https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28mm-Medieval-Renaissance-Italian-Flags-Borgia-/254202038547 )

[Captain Blood]

Lovely work on these